The object relations view within psychoanalysis can be naturally extended to gain an understanding of family dynamics and their interpersonal ramifications. Both an object relations perspective and family dynamics can be used in furthering the psychoanalytic process. Clinical material is presented after a brief discussion of the need for analysts not to diminish the importance of the patient's reality-based narrative. Finally, the role of reality itself is briefly touched upon, Meissner eventually concluding that whatever can be learned about the family is integrated "by other sources of evidence that are available within the analysis."